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Saturday, July 11, 2015

The Rains Came Down And The Floods Came Up

And the rains came down and the floods came up....Anyone remember that song from Sunday School?We have had rain nearly every day for the past couple of weeks. Lots and lots of rain. All that rain has to go somewhere, and one of those somewheres is the lake on which my parents' home sits.College Boy and I took a flying trip there on Tuesday afternoon with over 300 pounds of sandbags in the back of the van. The creek next to my parents' house, which flows into the lake in FRONT of their house, was rolling. The lake was high and the water chocolaty brown. This lake, Taneycomo, was formed when Powersite Dam was built on the White River in 1913. In 1958, Table Rock Dam was built upstream, which created (very large) Table Rock Lake, and which changed Taneycomo from a warm-water lake to a cold-water lake, filling it with water from the depths of Table Rock (200 feet deep at the dam) through electricity-generating turbines. Taneycomo looks more like a wide, serene river than a lake, especially when it's flooded and the water, no longer serene, is flowing from a combination of water coming from Table Rock, the area creeks that empty into it, and the water going over Powersite Dam at the other end. College Boy and I arrived here shortly after the dock from the house next door, on the creek, was pulled away from the shore and took off into the channel of the lake and headed off on an adventure of its own. (This dock tried to make a get away seven years ago, but it stopped at the mouth of the creek, six inches from crashing into my parents' dock, which tried to go on its OWN adventure by heading INTO the creek, pushed by a violent eddy caused by flood waters coming OUT of the creek.) The creek crested shortly after we got there, and by morning, the lake was down about a foot. We (meaning the College Boy) sandbagged the back door and went on home.Then it rained some more. Lots more. And THAT water is mostly running into Table Rock Lake, which is rising rather rapidly. After some pretty devastating flooding in 2011, the Corps of Engineers has been more proactive, and they have not been dumping water into Taneycomo from Table Rock. Yet. As of this moment, Table Rock has about four more feet it can rise before it flows over the flood gates. Fingers remain crossed that when this happens (odds are that it will), the water is able to flow right on down the lake and make its way to the Gulf of Mexico without stopping to come into my parents' house.Is that ten thankfuls? Or is it only half of one, since we're still waiting to see if we have dodged the flooding or not?Here are some pictures from my week to make up for my lack of real thankfuls:

Sunday evening sunset, as rain clouds build in the west.

Same evening, looking southwest. The broken trees are from the tornado.

Volleyball tournament. School ball.Already.

The fog is masking the brown of the flood waters.

In 2011, the water rose to just this sideof the bird bath.

Muck that washed out of the creek andinto the empty boat slip.

College Boy using a 10 foot poleto knock the muck out of the boat slip.

He couldn't resist getting involved inmuck removal.

There should be rocks and stuff alongthe shore line.

The neighbor's dock used to be at the footof these stairs. Hmmm.

Top: lake as usual. Bottom: lake withtoo much yucky water.

Top: the point across the creek where peopleoften sit on the rocks and fish. As you cansee, no rocks. All under water.Bottom: The next morning, after the rain waterquit flowing out of the creek and the lakelevel went down a foot.

While we're here, waiting to see if the sandbags were overkill or a necessity, you write your thankfuls and link them up, below.

30 comments:

And here I am whining about having to go to a family function on the first nice Saturday we've had in forever. I guess I'd better suck it up and write out my thankfuls. I hope the water recedes and stays out of you parent's house.

I had a feeling all of our rain was a gift from you. Thankfully, it doesn't seem our lakes and rivers are too bad. I guess there's been just enough time of no rain each day to allow the rain to run off before the next bout. We had about four hours of sun today. It was marvelous.

Well, I was just about to sit down to write a quick-and-dirty post about how excited we drought-stricken Californians were to get a tiny bit of rain on Thursday night! I guess it's all a matter of perspective--sure wish we could even out/share our flood/drought cycle. Fingers crossed with you!

You would think being surrounded by water I wouldn't be fascinated so much with stories about where lakes and rivers and what not came from. It is just so hard to imagine that they were not always there. So far, no flooding sounds like ten thankful to me.

I look and read that and I just fill with anxiety.I'm keeping you in my thoughts friend.Nothing is overkill in my world of preparedness -- you never know when a kid might spontaneously combust in your car while holding a crayon and you'll need a magic eraser and a wipe and a disinfectant wipe and a stain remover pen --- I'm just kidding... did I make you chuckle :)

It's nerve racking to watch water rise and know there's not a darn thing you can do to stop it. Thanks for the thoughts. I appreciate it. We are weary of natural disasters in these parts!I should be more prepared for things, especially spontaneous combustion. Can you ever really be prepared for that, though? It wouldn't be spontaneous then.... :)

quite the adventure!We don't normally experience floods in this part of the country. Except for one time in 'the great Flood of Aught 10' While certainly not flooding on the scale that you people in the Midwest experience, (Midwest floods motto: " everything is fricken flat, where would the water have to go?!"*), it was pretty bad. The worst thing about floods (to me) is that even when it stopped rain and the sun came out, the flooding continued! that's just not right!.great pictures

We have flash flooding more than anything else. The road behind my house has a low water bridge on it that floods every time we get much of a rain. It's up over the road and back down again within an hour or so, usually. The sustained flood that we were threatened with is more unusual for here.

Wicked, wacky, wild, mid-West weather. The pictures are wonderfully descriptive of your rescue mission. Worrying about your parents' safety when you are far away is difficult. And yay for College Boy's strength and ingenuity.

We are a place of extreme weather. It feels like a tropical rain forest out there today, with temps in the upper 90s and high humidity. College Boy had a good time digging around in that stuff. He especially loved getting huge trees out from under the dock. I'm just glad he didn't fall in.

Yuck to the muck! From the comments it looks like the run-off will stay away from your parent's house so that's good. I think it's been rainy everywhere. It's cloudy here but I like it because it gets SO hot otherwise!

It's Monday night and I hope all is well at the Lakehouse. To say it's nervewracking seeing the water line rise is an understatement. We were in our 2nd year in FL, 2004 when 4 hurricanes hit. The 2nd one, Frances, was the one it rained something like 36 hrs straight. We had a pond in back of our property, canal in front, and a pond on the property to the left of us. Good thing our house was on a mound. All 2.5 acres was under water! You took some excellent pictures Dyanne. Very cool cloud formations!